Caseworker Goes Extra Mile

Smile Greets Those In Need At Travelers Aid

September 11, 1991|By Phyllis Magida.

Magdalene Chears smiles at the very young couple standing near her desk. They`ve run away from home with $80, most of which is gone; so they`ve come to the Travelers & Immigrants Aid Welcome Center in the Greyhound-Trailways Bus Lines terminal, hoping for free transportation home.

``We came together; we want to go home together,`` the young man says as Chears nods sympathetically.

Chears says the young man`s family paid his fare, and the young woman was able to return through the Department of Public Aid`s return to residence program.

Chears, 43, has been a caseworker for Travelers Aid since 1981, first in the old Greyhound terminal at North Clark and West Randolph Streets and now in the new terminal at 630 W. Harrison St.

She has seen hundreds of people in every conceivable type of difficulty, Chears says, including runaway teens, seniors fleeing abusive children, the homeless and the mentally and emotionally disabled.

``To me, everyone is an individual,`` Chears says. ``I`m comfortable with many different kinds of people-the young or old, the (physically or mentally) disabled, the indigent or homeless. I just accept each person as he is.``

She particularly remembers a client with a 20-year history of alcohol abuse whom she first saw in 1986. ``This man had already been in several treatment programs without success,`` she says, adding that she also couldn`t help him commit to a program although she met with him two or three times a week for four years.

Chears says the turning point came last year on his birthday, when she gave him a small cake she had bought.

``He was so surprised,`` she says. ``He said, `I didn`t know you thought that much of me.` And I said, `Just because you have this problem doesn`t make you a bad person.` And then he began to cry and said, `I`m going to try and turn my life around. Will you still help me?` And I said, `Yes; of course I will.` ``

He has been sober since then, Chears says, adding that he attends nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, has a job selling newspapers and volunteers his free time at substance abuse centers.

``I was so moved that something insignificant, like a cake, could reach down and touch a person so deeply,`` she says.

``I`ve known and studied Maggie . . . since she came to the office,``

says Carol Jean Kier, one of two caseworkers with whom Chears shares the office. Kier calls Chears extraordinary and also praises her perspicacity.

Kier says she remembers one woman who came from Milwaukee and told Chears that she wanted to live here. ``She was mentally and emotionally disabled, and she was on (Social Security) disability,`` Kier says. The woman loved shopping and pretty clothes, she adds.

Chears found the woman emergency housing in a shelter for a few nights, then got her placed in a permanent facility for people with mental

disabilities, Kier recalls. Then, when the woman didn`t like that facility, Chears found her a room in a boarding house and notified the Social Security office of the woman`s new address so her disability checks would arrive on time.

When the woman saw the checks wouldn`t cover her room, board and shopping trips, she told Chears she wanted to go home to Milwaukee, where she could live with her mother. ``Maggie then called Travelers Aid in Milwaukee to help the woman have her address changed again,`` Kier says.

The woman visits Chears whenever she is in Chicago on a shopping trip, Kier adds.

``The essence of Maggie is that she listens into the heart,`` Kier says.

``She hears what people want to do, not just their words, and helps them to clarify it, then helps them to live it.

``At the beginning, I couldn`t believe that such simple goodness existed. But it`s real.``

Administrator Carol King, who oversees the Travelers Aid Welcome Centers at the bus terminal and in O`Hare International Airport, says Chears is ``like the calm eye of the storm with all the activity going on around her.``

King adds that there`s a rich fund of stories-called ``Maggie lore``-

floating around the Welcome Center offices, each describing a way in which Chears saved the day.

King`s favorite ``Maggie lore`` involves caseworker Elizabeth Hamilton, who has since left the agency. ``It was Beth`s first day on the job, and she was taking a man`s application,`` King says. ``But when she looked up, he had removed his tie and was tying himself to the chair.``

Hamilton immediately went to get Chears. ``But by the time they got back, he was taking off the rest of his clothes.``

Chears calmly explained to the man that he couldn`t be interviewed if he was going to disrobe. ``She got him to untie himself and to put his clothes back on,`` King says.

``Maggie can handle the most diverse situations without getting rattled. She`s a unique blend of humanity and professionalism.``